Blessed

I just got to experience an amazing weekend with the ladies from church. This is our second year hosting a retreat to start off the year. Each year has blessed us with unexpected connections.

This year's topic was REFUGE.
We discussed at our annual meeting that we want to be a refuge for each other and the ladies in our community. We decided to study and discuss it together.

Our first speaker taught us that we are a lot like her dog. We know there's this beautiful house where we are cared for and loved. But when the storms come, we hide in the smallest place possible and the simplest place.

The second speaker was me. I shared my refuge and how my personality may not make me seem like the best refuge for ladies. But with trust and understanding, you will be the right refuge for the right person, like searching for a port in the storm when a boat is in need of refuge.

Third speaker taught us through music and the Psalms how we should search for refuge instead of trying to hide in our box in the woods. We need to run from to run to and cry out and claim the victory by reading and remembering so that we can rest and rejoice in our Lord.

Our fourth speaker told us her story and how she has overcome struggles by continuously coming back to the Lord as her refuge. She taught us how He has instilled in us all the gift of creation. We each have the gift to create something and it serves as a refuge to us.

I think we had the most fun with the personality test we took as our ice breaker. It was silly and right on the money for certain things. But it helped us recognize the similarities and differences between us all and that we need one if each to get certain things done in life.

As I was reflecting on the weekend, I realized how blessed I was. That if anything happened in my life, I wouldn't want to be with any other group of ladies. The prayer warriors, the care givers, the entertainers, and everyone inbetween. I feel blessed to be able to learn more about them and allow them to learn more about me. And to learn how to become closer to our Lord and let Him shine through us to the world.

I am blessed. Now I need to continue to be a blessing.

Tossed Together

I woke this morning realizing that I had forgotten to share a story with my Women's Ministry group. We had an amazing meeting titled "Tossed Together ". We had a salad lunch with the meeting and everyone brought a topping. And I didn't connect it to the lesson for them. I was just nervous to get the meeting rolling.  Here's why we did this...

We are all here together for a reason. God has a purpose for bringing you all here to this place at this time. I have known for a while that those who are meant to be here, will be. What is the significance of this?

We have been tossed together for a purpose. He has a plan for putting all of our different personalities and gifts together. We have been Tossed Together to create an amazing salad like we have all just eaten.

If I would have been the only one here today, my salad would have been pretty sad. Just some lettuce, carrots, and sunflower seeds.

Once you add one more, we now have a dressing and some bread to go with it. That is starting to make a meal. It's more enjoyable and easier to swallow.

If you add all of you, we have a feast. We have lettuce, spinach, 4 dressings, 2 breads, carrots, peppers, cranberries, sunflower seeds, cucumber, cottage cheese, eggs, cheese, and I know I'm forgetting something because the counter was full. And we had enough to fill all of us and share with our families and a family in need.

Because we all came together and tossed what we had brought together, we had an amazing meal and some to share. We filled ourselves and were able to outreach. This is what our Women's Ministry is all about. Coming together to be filled so that we can reach out to others.

If it's just me, it's a sad lunch that's hard to swallow. It's an unsatisfied fill that doesn't give me the strength to put myself out there.

Once you add one more, it can become a satisfying lunch that makes you want to do more. Your conversation gives you strength to do more.

God designed us to need others. We were not meant to be alone. Therefore he keeps tossing us together in churches where we can grow and make a difference.  When we are all Tossed Together we make an amazing feast. And the conversation we have can change us, our community, and hopefully someday the world.

Knowing this, because we now experienced it, why wouldn't you want to encourage more ladies to be part of the feast? Why would you want to stay away from the banquet and eat a dry lonely lunch by yourself?

Encourage others to play a part in the feast. Share with them how they will be filled to the point that they will need to share with others.

Imagine the kind of salad we could create if every lady joined us bringing with them just one item. If they brought just one of their gifts, what kind of dent in the world could we create? How far could the ripples from our dent travel? How many of you want to fins this out?

Women Of Faith part 5

Here's the last bit. Winding it all down just in time to hit the road for a LIFE seminar in Ohio. Then my own event here in Merrill. Come on over to Bible Presbyterian Church in Merrill, WI on November 4th at about 1130am to cheer us on and join in the fun. But now back to WOF.

Pat Smith was our next speaker. She is the wife of Emmett Smith. She started joking around a bit about football teams and Dancing With the Stars. Then she shared her story.

• It's only God, because I'm not worthy
• We were all birthed by a mother.
• Mom would radiate light. Would have to stop and hug everyone at the restaurant on the way to the table.
• Mom gave her life purpose from really little.
• Worried what it would be like for the rest of her life if her mom died of cancer when she was just 17.
• Her mom had 5 more years on this earth after the initial diagnosis.
• She felt abandoned and alone and insecure. She started down the wrong path for the next 20 years. Because she wanted her mom to tell her what to do.
• She got married, had a beautiful daughter and a horrible divorce. Met Emmett and now they have a wonderful family together.
• She felt purposeless and unacknowledged. As purposeful as it was to be a wife and mom, "I knew there was more".
• She Challenged us: 1. You gotta push past fears and insecurities. 2. You gotta see God; go to church, join a Bible study  4. We have to trust Him. (yes, I know there's no 3. My friend didn't hear the 3 either.)
• She shared a moment in her life when she felt like it was all going in the right direction. She had found a purpose in life and was doing something for God's glory. Then she got a call from the doctor. At 40 years old and four kids at home already, the doc told her that she was pregnant again. She couldn't believe it since her husband had just gotten a vasectomy. She ran to the drug store to buy a pregnancy test. Feeling like she was 13, she ran back to the drug store to buy another one because she didn't believe it. The lady behind the counter said, "Face it honey, you're pregnant."
• She had bad depression during this pregnancy. Her medical records had gotten mixed up with another woman's files. She spent her whole pregnancy worrying about the baby growing inside of her. Until towards the end of the pregnancy when they realized the mix up and apologized to her. That's when she heard God say, " This is where I wanted you. I just want you submitted to Me and dedicated to Me." She carried the burden of this other woman.
• He is leading and directing us. He cares for us.
• Our God love me more
• He can fill a void that no one can fill.

Then Selah came on stage to sing us some songs and share some fun and moving stories with us. They were really awesome and funny.

• Amy Perry shared her 8 month old little man with us. She shared that she had weight issues until she realized that there was something broken inside of her. She got together with a nutritionist and gave her heart to Jesus. She lost a bunch of weight and then found out she was pregnant. She shared with us that she had some sort of growth on her hip and even let the camera man zoom in on it. That's when the rest of the band started shaking their heads. Then she let us know that the doctor told her it was fat and that it formed that way because she had worn the same style of pregnancy underwear her entire pregnancy and they were asymmetrical causing one hip to grow an abnormal fat growth on her hip. That was when the band got up and started leaving the stage. What did they expect in a room of thousands of women? It was all in good humor.
• Allan Hall plays the piano (basically all the music for the band, pretty awesome) and he shared some flashbacks with us. He just turned 42 recently...and is single. He shared that he'd been playing the piano since he was 7. He played us some 80s flashback tunes. He is awesomely talented.

Lastly the Women Of Faith group performed scripture and songs from The Voice Bible. It was pretty cool. Different listening to stories I knew from the Bible read from this version. Not one of my new favorites but more power to you if this version speaks to your heart.

To finish off this travel through our weekend, I will leave you with some pics from our dinner stop. We had so much fun. But we always do when we get together. I pray that God spoke to you somewhere in this walk with me. I look forward to sharing my next adventure with you soon. Until then, go out and praise Him.

 

Women Of Faith part 4

Angie Smith was next on deck. She started with saying that if we were there last year that she was sorry because it was going to be the same story. We were a little concerned. By the end of her talk the concern was abolished because she shared some of the same things but the talk was different. It's inspiring to see that the same story can be told again and again with different emphasis and you receive a whole new meaning out of it. Especially as I plan for leading my first Women's Ministry event. Good thing I have a co-coordinator and many minions to help with it. But back to WOF and Angie Smith.

• She shared her big problem with fear and how her mom had similar fears.
• She became a believer in graduate school at a Beth Moore event - Breaking Free
• She shared the story of how she met her husband Todd and how marrying a musician changed how she had envisioned her future. She wasn't sure how to be a wife to a musician but she seems to have the hang of it now. They are very cute together.
• She shared about her first pregnancy being a miscarriage and the sense of humor of God. Because she had twin girls next who were easy and as sweet as can be. Their next daughter came raging into the world and is a born negotiator. Later she shares about her last pregnancy which wasn't as emotional to all of us as it was last year but still very moving and impactful.
• She shared how she was worried all the time about everything. (which reminded me of my Hazel girl) And how even as a preschooler she was terrorized by fear (exactly like my Hazel girl).
• She shared her love for Hagar in the Bible from Genesis 21:8.
• "When I read scripture, I want to have my feet in the dirt."
• According to the math Hagar's child should have been a teenager, so placing the child on her shoulder would not have been possible. That bit of information changes the whole way you see the story.
• The "what ifs" that keep us up in the middle of the night. When human provision has run out, it turns the "what if" to a "what is".
• She shared about her fourth pregnancy and the fear that started at the ultrasound when they were told that it was not good. They were told that this was not a child that was compatible for life on this earth. They were talked to about aborting it but they both believed that God had a reason for this child and they were going to see it through. Miraculously all of the items they listed off that made the child incompatible with life were healed, or formed, during the pregnancy. But the child still did not look strong enough for them to be able to bring her home. Audrey lived for 2 1/2 hours and weighed just over 3 pounds. She shared that it was an incredibly peaceful moment despite circumstances.
• "We fought with hope."
• "She had weight in this world."
• You're not alone.
• "I saw God in a way, I never thought I could that night."
• Back to Hagar: she opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. God's provision was right next to her, when human provision ran out, she closed her eyes.
• We all have the deep to contend with in our lives.
• Psalm 139
• Believed in God from the shore but knew Him in the deep.
• Gospel of John and the woman at the well. God said, "This is when you're going to chose me."
• It's absurd that God would chose to die on the cross.
• God is inviting you to drink from the well.

Then the ballerinas came back out (they kept dancing through most of the music through the weekend) and danced to a song sung by Selah.

Next Pattie Mallette. Otherwise known as Justin Beiber's mom. She was interviewed by Sheila Walsh.

• She shared how strange it was for all of these girls to go so ga-ga over her son. He's just a normal kid with an amazing gift.
• The interview was about the new book that she has written about her life and the challenges she has overcome with God's Grace.
• He dad left when she was 2 years old. He used to beat her mom. Her mom was emotionally distant.
• She had to grow up really quickly because her mom had too much on her own plate.
• Nine years old when her mom introduced her to her dad and then he passed away two months later of a heart attack.
• She was sexually abused by 5 different abusers between the ages of 4 and 10 years old.
• She was date raped at 15.
• She kept wondering "What is wrong with me?"
• 14 years old when she started with drugs and alcohol. It was self medication from her past and her current choices.
• At 5 years old she went to Sunday school and got the first seed of Christ but there was no follow up to help that seed grow. It just waited patiently.
• John Brown was a local youth center director. The youth center was a heaven for teenagers. He is the man that helped her turn her life around eventually with the help of his wife.
• At the age of 17 she ended up in the hospital for trying to commit suicide. She realized there that she had no friends. No one came to visit her besides John Brown and he would mainly talk about God. The one day he stopped, he brought a single rose with a message, "God told me to bring you this rose and tell you this is how God sees you." She couldn't believe it but that got her thinking and she prayed a true prayer to God that night. She found out that God was real.
• When you hit rock bottom, there's no where to go but up.
• 6 months after leaving the hospital she found that she was pregnant. She moved into a pregnancy crisis center because her parents "were done raising children".
• She felt full of shame as an unwed mom. As a mom, you're forever changed and you have a purpose.
• Justin is now 18. She felt that now was a good time to tell her story. She wanted to share the message of how to work through the darkest times and survive.
• Surround yourself with good people. Don't do it alone. Don't give up.

• God is a God of redemption.

Women Of Faith part 3

Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day. Fog everywhere. Walking out in the evening though, it felt like spring.

Psalm 143 - I was watching the women sing and we've been discussing in our group what it is that makes women raise their hands in praise during music. Wondering if they catch themselves doing it while they're driving in the car. As I watched the women this morning, I was hit by a thought. What if these women are giving all of themselves to the music in this moment. They aren't letting anything else distract them. They are making a direct connection to the Spirit in this moment.

Mike Lewis came to paint for us. It was an amazing experience.

 
He tells the story of Jesus in his painting. Once the whole story has been shared, you see the face of Jesus. It was amazing.

Liz Curtis Higgs was our next speaker.

• God loves you exactly as you are.
• 1 John 3:1 - lavished...what a word. - and an exclamation point.
• Eph 3:18 - wide, long, high, deep, it's got all aspects covered kind of like one size fits all. To which she wanted to know all of what? All of your arm, your leg, what part. She then informed us that they are changing it to one size fits most. Which she is so thrilled about because now she can leave the house with most of it covered.
• He knows your first breath and your last.
• He stores every tear that falls in a bottle.
• God never said, "oops" about any person.
• It's easy to look around and compare yourself to each other. There will always be someone more thinner, taller, younger than you. You are the definition of beautiful for you.
• Stop discounting your beauty and disagreeing with God's creation.
• Beyond faith, into something all together more
• When you get dressed in the morning, you definitely do not want to do this naked, jump in front of the mirror and throw your hands in the air and say, "TAH DAH". Two reasons. One, when you throw your arms up in the air, it picks everything up. Two, Tah Dah stands for, "Thank you Father". And if you do this in front of your daughters, they can think, "If she can say Tah Dah with all of that, I've got it going on."
• Psalm 149:4 - beautify us with salvation.
• He looks down and says, "She is Mine." (which reminded me of leaning over the balcony and watching all the women go by.)
• Deut 7:6 - chosen to be...his treasured possession
• 2 Tim 1:9 - before the beginning of time
• Now on to the story of Adam and Eve. She had one commandment to follow and it was a diet. It was a food problem from the beginning. The one fruit you couldn't resist. God was ready from the beginning. the fruit was there to prove how much we need him. It couldn't have been an apple, the apple is always the last fruit in the fruit basket. It had to be chocolate. The man was with her...when did he get there? She had quite the long conversation with the serpent in order to convince her to fall to temptation. All Adam needed was her.
• When we sin, we try to cover it like they did in the garden. They wove vines and leaves and covered themselves. But the thing with leaves is that once they are plucked, they wither and die and reveal what is behind them. Just like our attempts to cover our sin are worthless and eventually fade away. God had to make proper coverings for them to wear to hide their sin. Only God can properly cover us. Some innocent animal had to die for us to get those skins to wear out of the garden that day. From the beginning innocent blood needed to be shed to cover our sin.
• Book of Ruth 2:9 nobody is lower than the gleaner, which was Ruth's job, and was offered good water from Boaz. It was an offer of hospitality and says, "I want a relationship with you."
• Ruth 2:10 She's blown away by this offer. "Why are you looking at me?" She felt unworthy. why have you looked my way? Why have you chosen me?
• "I chose my pit, a Moab of my own making." Nobody dives into a pit in a day. Starting at age 16 the spiral started for her with cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, men. Most men won't care when the lights go out. She shares the different mental states at the end of the night in the bar.
• "He let me hit bottom." It's the only way they'll get out.
• The prodigal son. He came to his senses that he was in a pit...his senses....especially the sense of smell.
• God is with you in that pit, you cannot out run God. God saw all of it. He is there, you just have to seek Him.
• "There are reasons I shouldn't have survived that pit."
• Brand new Christians are like puppies just waiting for someone to piddle on.
• The power of a hug (which I got to use later that day). Love them, don't judge them. Wrap them up in God's embrace.
• It's not "you have to believe in God", it's "God believes in you".
• "These Christians had Bibles everywhere. In their car, in their bathroom, everywhere you could think of."
• He died for us, so why not live for Him.
• Walk chosen.

Max Lucado was up next.

• He shared that he was excited to be here this weekend because he would finally get a bathroom all to himself. He has three daughters at home. And we confiscated the bathrooms just like at home.
• There are still a few things he doesn't get about women. 1. the purse  2. going to the bathroom together...because if he ever got up to go to the bathroom and three guys got up to join him, that he would change his mind and not go.
• But the world would be empty, dry and stale without women.
• You're going to get through this, He'll turn it good.
• 40 Days of Prayer for the USA - for God to grant a candidate
• Seeing the ocean for the first time and how it moved. The waves just kept coming. They might knock you down and you have to crawl back to the shore because they just keep coming. Just like the Grace of God keeps coming. Wave after wave it comes. You get knocked down and it washes over you again and again.
• Grace is the Big News. Timothy - be strong in it. Hebrews - make sure no one misses the Grace of God.
• Abundance of Grace = lack of bitterness
• John 8 - the story of the harlot that was caught in adultery and brought to Jesus at the temple where he was teaching. "He who is without sin, throw the first stone." Turns out it was a whole trick because there is no mention of the man being caught with the woman. After Jesus is questioned as to what this woman's punishment is meant to be, He stoops down and writes something in the sand. What did He write? Jesus had stooped down so that the woman would not be the lowest one there. He also wanted to be at eye level with her and not them. Grace is the God that stoops.
• Jesus spent his life building chairs and putting up with cranky customers.
• Warmness in your heart and openness of mind is God talking to you.
• Back to the story in John 8, beginning with the eldest, the accusers all turned and left. They arrived as a group but they left one by one. Jesus stooped back down as they started to leave and wrote some more in the sand. Then He stood up and asked, "Where are your accusers?"
• Where are your accusers? Those voices that pull you out of bed at night. The feel of the stares as you walk down the street. We can relate to the condemnation whether it's been for a lifetime or just a moment. Guilt is the preferred commodity of Satan. He recruits demons to follow us around and look for those weaknesses.
• He will not allow anyone to take us out of His hand.
• Satan steals our joy with accusations. In Revelations, ...was cast to the earth, the accuser...
• The Bible is not just to show us what He did but what He still does for us today.
• He's your intercessor, He's your advocate. He stands up for you, He speaks for you. Your name has been spoken in heaven. He gave his help to that woman but he gives his heart/hope to us. When you give your heart to Jesus, He returns the favor and gives us his heart.
• Get a new Want to, a new Can do.
• No other religion talks about having their deity in their heart.
• Taylor's gift. "I want to hear my own daughter's heart beat one more time." Their 13 year old daughter died in a skiing accident and a mother of three was waiting for a heart. The families kept in touch. (Go to the website if none of that makes sense to you.) Who's heart beat did they hear?
• When you give your heart to Jesus and He gives His heart to you, that's who heart God hears.
• 216 times Christ's indwelling is told about in the Bible.
• Maybe you can't control your temper, but Jesus can and He lives inside you. Maybe you can't control your addiction, but Jesus can and He lives inside you.
• It may take awhile because "transplants" take time.
• He's going to change you.
• You are not stuck. (reminded me of the Jennie Allen study I did.)
• Maintain the heart of a sponge not the heart of a rock.
• Soften your heart, you are not an exception to the rule.
• Youtube video  Joy placed herself between a cliff and a runaway SUV in order to save her three kids still inside.
• Back to the woman in John 8 - Jesus said, "I don't accuse you, now sin no more." Each stone that fell from her accuser's hand is a burial stone of judgement and pride. We may guess that Jesus wrote in the sand, "Grace happened here today."
• It's amazing what God can do with a broken life if you give Him all the pieces.

And until tomorrow...have a TAH DAH kind of a day.

Women Of Faith 2012 part 2

Alright here are my notes. As always, they may not flow as well as the speakers did. I am just not a speed writer and I don't feel like I need to collect every word. I hope that something I collected helps you with some thought that has been following you.

Our God is Stronger
Pray for us
Isaiah 43 - I am doing a new thing

Ken Davis was our first speaker of the weekend. We laughed and cried with him.

• Minnesota is filled with a robust people.
• He was born in Virginia, MN. He remembers the local saunas where you got all hot and sweaty and then jumped through a hole in the ice. He also remembers his dad telling him to never stick his tongue to the flag pole. He never thought of doing that before so there must be something magical about it....his tongue is still there today.
• He share with us his new book Fully Alive. He asked the crowd if we wanted to live. There was almost no response. I think we were waiting for the follow-up question. Then he asked again and the auditorium reverberated with a "YES".
• He shared pictures of him through the years and shared with us what each stage of life meant to him.
• He was bullied in high school.
• He shared a picture of him looking very suave in a pirate shirt and this modeling pose. He called this the idiot stage and told us not to "oooo" at it. It's the stage of life where you are searching for self worth and acceptance. You want to find value. You are not here by accident.
• Then comes the confused stage of life where you spend more time looking for the tool instead of doing the work. You end up doing the air port macarena when leaving anywhere to make sure that you have everything. You need to do the shimmy at the end to take account for what's in your pockets.
• He thinks the best place to keep your car keys is in the ignition because if you find the car, you find the keys. You can't lose the car in the couch cushions.
• What is God going to do today?
• 1. Believe that God is the author of joy. He's the one that created everything.
• He shared that there are some Christians out there that don't act like God created joy. He said that some need to send missionaries to their face and let it know about it.
• Satan attacks everything on Sunday which is why your kids act up as much as they do.
• "I find great joy that you won't always be 19." There was a young girl in the front row who was really paying attention to him speaking. It was a very touching and funny back and forth between them.
• 2. Believe with all your heart.
• Perfection is not a requirement
• He shared with us about his experience running a triathlon. He came in second, in his age group, there were only two in his age group. But he finished and he was proud of that fact. He pushed through and left nothing on the road.
• 3. God is good all the time.
• It comes down to relationships so lighten up.
• As long as Moses kept his hands up, there was a way across the water.

Cece Winans came out and sang to us and with us. I love it when the singers pull the headset out of their ear so that they can hear all the women sing. It is an amazing sound to hear.

• She shared the story of the woman with the alabaster box. The woman who entered where she wasn't accepted because she needed to bathe Jesus's feet with her tears, dry them with her hair, and anoint them with the oil in her alabaster box.
• He takes all of your attention. Jesus focuses on you at that moment just as he did the women. She was the only one that mattered at that moment.

Shelia Walsh was our next speaker.

• Romans 12 (and again I had a God-moment because I'm studying Romans 12 on Thursday mornings)
• Paul was speaking to people who lived under the law all of their lives.
• May I introduce you to Grace verses 1 and 2: Jesus changes everything.
• Until kindergarten you dictate who comes in and out of your children's lives. Then you send them off to school and you lose some control of their influences.
• God is in control all of the time.
• You can't just disappear as a mom, you have to be there all of the time.
• Felt like she was something wrong. Thought that nobody's coming to get me.
• We are not made for survival or existence but life.
• Zaccheaus was curious and just wanted to watch. Jesus wanted to have dinner at his house.
• Luke 19:10 - came to seek and to save these lost/ruined people
• Bummer lambs: the lambs that the mothers reject and the shepherd takes home, nurses to health, and then returns them to the flock. These lambs don't just believe in the shepherd, they know his kindness and love.
• No matter who wins this election, our hope will never be in the White House. Our hope is in Jesus.
• This is not our home, we are aliens in a strangeland (which took me back to a sermon I heard recently and was really inspired by)
• The lie of the enemy is that you are not enough.
• Luke 4 - Jesus was baptized. He was led by the spirit to the wilderness. We were only told about the last three temptations. Jesus simply quoted the Bible in order to defeat Satan.
• Conviction draws you closer to God, condemnation takes you away.
• I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.
• John 16:33
• Hebrews 13:5
• 2 Corinthians 12:9
• John 14:27
• Peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ.
• God is calling us to grow up.

And this is the end of day one. We had a fabulous time. Stay tuned for more tomorrow.

Women Of Faith 2012

It was such a good time. It was interesting how the event changes by just changing the number of people that are involved. This was good information to stock away for the Women's Ministry. And my hubby gave me a good compliment this morning. I filled him in on some of what I learned over the weekend and then he caught the tail end of our Sunday school class conversation and when the sermon connected it all, he leaned over and whispered, "Do you think he was listening in to our conversation this morning?" I whispered back, "That's how my life has been for the past couple of weeks." He whispered back, "That must mean that you are on the right path." I started crying because that is how I feel but I can also feel the battle for my mind going on. I don't know how these Christan Greats do this daily. It's exhausting.

So I am totally off topic. But I go to thinking that last year's Women Of Faith notes took a couple days worth of blog entries. So maybe I'll just cover some of the fun stuff for today and get my notes in to share over the next couple of days.

Last year, our fearless leader made sure that we were going to have fun. Since it was just the four of us this year, she decided that we should just go and enjoy and not be all big and bold. (See picture below.)

We decided that it was our turn to do something fabulous for her. We searched for a tshirt and decided for the four of us we could just do the design by hand. (They decided it was to be my hand.)

 
The above are my front and back. My hubby said that I looked years younger with the new hair color so he took some pictures of me when I got home tired. The "Today I" on the front and the "Celebrate" on the back glow in the dark. We thought that might be cool to do for in the stadium when they turn off the lights. Next time we're adding glow bracelets so that we can use them as lights to take notes by. Then we did a project on Friday night. Each lady got to write (or have written) what they celebrate on the back of their shirts. I know the back pictures aren't the best but we were in a hurry to be off.

 

Oh...everyone thought our butterfly headbands were fabulous. They were fun to make and not bad to wear.

Needless to say, our fearless leader was thrilled that we carried on the torch and brought some simple funs to the event. I think the process of writting on the shirts was a good project to do to get us ready for Saturday.

We laughed so much this weekend together. Everything was funny. Wish I would have thought to take a picture of the truck that said, "Mounted Police". But I did get...

 
These ladies scolded me for taking the picture while walking down the grassy hill. They were all watching out for me with all of my back pain issues. We decided on Mexican the first night because it was across the street from the hotel. With all of us having little to no Spanish education, we could only guess what the name of restaurant meant. So we asked our server what "el loro" meant and he said he didn't know. Which set us off giggling because everything was funny that weekend. Our waiter did know. It is "the parrot". Yeah, I won the guess.

Forgot to take a picture (or better a video) of our hotel room. It was a really nice room with two queen beds and a HUGE bathroom. We were a little concerned that it might be haunted because the bathroom door had that haunted house creak to it. So everytime someone got up in the middle of the night....rrrreeekkk. Again, much laughter about it.

We had some pretty awesome seats. We were on the Club Box level right up by the stage.

 

My ankle wasn't very happy with me by the end of the weekend. But we're getting along much better now that I've taken it for a few small walks and stretches. At one point we were leaning against that balcony and wondering if this is how God feels. Except that He can pick your thoughts out of the air and hear them. We were fascinated by how women act and move. I think we stood there for a good 10-15 minutes just watching people come and go down on the main concourse. And we decided that we would never dye our hair flourescent pink and put it in pigtails for any event. We were also really glad that we went with teal tshirts because everyone was wearing lime green, pink, and orange (those were our other choices).

Dinner on the way home was a blast! We stopped at a family restaurant truck stop. Again, everything was funny. The families eating around us kept glancing our way. We were crying from laughing so hard. I swear everyone had to think that we were on something. Then I realized that this is what it feels like to be free and to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you don't believe that Jesus had to be a jokester, then you have never felt as we did this weekend.

It was a wonderful weekend. But I just heard my life come barreling in the door. Time to go and hug my monkeys.

Our Women's Ministry

I had THE BEST time this weekend. I got to hang out with my friends and my hubby isn't cranky about anything...he's actually having a good time.

My friends at church came up with a fantastic idea to have an Unbirthday Party to boost our women's ministry back into gear. I'd say that we went all out but there's plenty of things that we held back on...maybe next time. We Alice'd it up all over the church's backyard. I took pictures...it was so awesome.

But I got suggested for Co-coordinator of the ministry. I took it because working with someone is alot more fun than doing it on your own. And now my mind is going on all the things that we could do with this ministry. connecting women and bringing their families along for the ride. Now to tell the hubby...I hope he'll be excited for me.

And now....the pictures of our awesome event.

yeah, that's me.

I hope your Women's Ministry is as much fun as ours is. If it isn't, you are more than welcome to join us. Until next time...